Santander sells Banco Popular’s US subsidiary for about 440 million euros

The buyer of the Totalbank is the Chilean Bank of Credit and Investments

If it receives authorization from the regulators, the operation will be closed at the end of 2018

Banco Santander has reached an agreement to sell Totalbank, the subsidiary of Banco Popular in the United States , to the Chilean bank Banco de Credito e Inversiones (BCI) for 528 million dollars (one 440 million euros), according to a statement sent by the Spanish bank to the National Securities Market Commission (CNMV).

The Chilean entity has already tried to buy the subsidiary of Popular in May , but the management of that time rejected the offer. Now, Ana Botín has accepted the operation within the divestments that Santander is making in assets of the bank that it bought last June .

The sale of the total capital of the subsidiary will result in a capital gain of 170 million euros on the individual accounts of the Popular, with a positive impact on its capital of maximum quality of 60 basis points.

The operation is also expected to have a positive effect of 5 basis points on the highest quality capital of the Santander Group and “an immaterial impact on results”.

In any case, the transaction is subject to the usual regulatory conditions and authorizations , and it is expected to end during the second half of 2018 .